A year ago -- Sept. 26 to be exact -- Prime Minister Harper announced the conclusion of negotiations of the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA). The flights alone cost $300,000.

We Canadians are writing to you, the Socialists, New European Left, and Greens, because you have the power to stop these dangerous trade deals. With this type of trade agreement, we have a choice: Do we accept rising inequality, unchecked corporate power, and lowered social and environmental standards, allowing the one per cent to become richer at our expense, or do we draw a line in the sand?

Leonard Peltier, now 68, has been in prison for 35 years. Since 1977, petitions and pleas on his behalf have been ignored; appeals by the Arhbshiop of Canterbury, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nelson Mandela, 55 U.S. Congressmen, and Canadian Parliamentarians, and members of the European Parliament Union. But the FBI is adamant that he killed two of their agents.

To Nigel Farage, the "obsession" of EU members to create a European state means they are "happy to destroy democracy... who the hell do you think you people are? You are very, very dangerous people." Agree with Farage or not (I'm inclined to), he's refreshingly fearless and articulate.